The
heat was oppressive in Agoura Hills California in mid July where 220 or so
intrepid chess tournament competitors, mostly from 25 to 45 miles to the south,
made the trek up the Ventura freeway to compete in the CCA 14th
annual Pacific coast Open.

Perhaps
it was the 110F heat that caused an unusual number of disputes. There were
complaints about full point byes, an inevitable result of an uneven number of
players in a section, and one player insisted that his opponent offered a draw
in a position when the complainer had a dead lost game. It was an old variation
of the "resigns" body language trying to snatch a half point with a handshake.
The guy went on and on and directors NTD Randy Hough and NTD Steve Immitt
showed great patience in hearing and rehearing this players whine. He even
appealed to me, mistaking this old reporter for some kind of official. Heck,
these days I just play bad chess and report!

Another
player was so persistently obnoxious; he had to be put out of the tournament!
He had a touch move dispute with a 9-year-old and was about to get a favorable
ruling. Instead of making the kid move the piece he touched, he demanded the
boy be forfeited. When Steve explained the rule, the guy cut loose with an
appalling blast of profanity and abuse at the kid and Steve, disturbing the
players around him.

Though
the heat outside the hotel was overwhelming, the Renaissance provided a
comfortable playing venue with good lighting and roomy conditions. Who knows
what bugs were eating at the players but the event was very well run and
produced some fine chess

Southern
California has but one Grandmaster, the always smiling, very friendly Melikset
Khachiyan from Glendale, (A city surrounded by LA). For Melik this competition
was a turkey shoot, and he finished a clear point ahead of the field with 5.5/6. His only real competition in the Open section were IMs
Emory Tate, who has recently relocated to Southern California (Corr-Northern California), Andranik
Matikozyan, also from Glendale, and State Champion IM Enrico Sevillano. The
Open was almost decided in round three when Melik produced this exciting fine
win over his fellow Armenian ex-patriot, a former two-time winner of this event.
The game follows with enthusiastic notes by the GM.

1.e4
c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.0-0

I used to play 5.c4,which also leads to
interesting lines. But recently I analyzed positions from the Rossolimo and I
decided, why not play the old line 5.00? It's very underrated.5...Nc6 6.c3
Nf6 7.d4 Nxe4 8.d5 Ne5 9.Nxe5 Here
I believe I could play more sharply with 9.Re1. The idea is to force black's
knight to f6 instead of d6. But I wasn't sure about positions, which appear
many times in my quick games after -- 9.Re1 Nxf3 10.Qxf3 Nf6 11.Bg5 Qg4.But I
guess there is room to improve there.9...dxe5
10.Re1 Nd6! 11.Rxe5 g6 12.Bg5 0-0-0?!
It's hard to believe to this obvious move could
be abad decision by black, but White
has easy play after this move. I underestimated 12...Nf5giving black an easy game, probably easy equality.
13.Re1 Nc4?!
Better to play 13...h6 here.14.b3
Nb6
14...Qxd5 15.Qg4++-15.c4!
I'm very proud of this brilliant idea. It's a
positional sacrifice. I simply give up a rook for a bishop, because in this
particular case the black bishop is the main defensive piece, and with cost of
an exchange, White will create huge attack. I also noticed that the black
knight was not doing well on b6. 15...Bg7 16.Nd2 Bxa1 17.Qxa1
Has
to be done to remove pressure from e7 pawn. Also black needs to hurry to
remove pressure from c5 pawn in case of Ne4. 17...f6 18.Bf4
This
is the main idea. White creates strong pressure on the h2-b8 diagonal.18...g5?!
It was better to play e5
right away.After19.dxe6 Qe7 black has a chances hold a game. If 19.Rxe5 fxe5
20.Qxe5 then in some lines important to have a pawn on g6.For instance here
black could play 20...Qd6 and now 21.Qxd6 will lead the game to better endgame
for white, but with chances for draw for black, and most important part, since
black pawn stands on g6,white doesn't haveQxg5.Obviosly my opponent completely missed idea of sacrificing rook. 19.Bg3 e5 20.Rxe5!!
Great move. 20...fxe5 21.Qxe5 Qf7
21...Qd6 22.Qxg5 Rhg8 23.Qxg8±22.Ne4!
Increasing
pressure. Black doesn't have any good moves.22...Na8
23.Qb8+ Kd7 24.Nxc5+ Ke8 25.Qe5+
Very nice chess geometry! 25...Qe7 26.Qxh8+ Kf7 27.Qxh7+ Kf8
Last hope was 28.Ne6 + Qxe6,but.... 28.Qh8+ Kf7 29.Qh5+ 1-0

Melikset
is a truly remarkable teacher. He had no less than eight of his students
playing. He was very proud of9-year-old Evan Anthopoulos who gained about 100 rating points by
scoring plus one in under 1300. The GM thinks that this kid has real talent, which
will show more and more soon. But Melik was no less proud of his other
students, all of whom were competitive. Sometimes the GM looked like a smiling
mother hen, surrounded by her chicks in the hallway outside the tournament room
between rounds!

Melik
has had some notably successful students such as Steve Zierk who is now over
2300. Two of his other students are known in junior circles, WFM Simone Liao
and 9-year-old Leo Kamgar. He teaches and gives lectures to help aspiring
players improve their understanding on chess.com. He is also available for in
person one one on one instruction.Email him at [email protected]

In
conclusion, your reporter wishes to express congratulations for his fine play
andthanks for sharing his thoughts with us in his two key
games.

In
the 4th round Khachiyan drew with Tate, who had 2 other draws, one
with Master Ron Hermansen, and in the last round with Andrainic. This set the
stage for the big showdown between the GM and Sevillano. After Melik prevailed
in that game, he had only to defeat Expert (NOW MASTER!) Yiam Liou, to finish a
full point ahead of the 34-player-field.

The
prizes were $30,000 based on 250 and that was right on the button as 80% was
guaranteed and exactly that was paid! Bill Goichberg has an uncanny ability to
predict turnouts, probably based on running tournaments for 40 plus years.

Melik
got the big payday of $2500, which he certainly earned. Tate and Matikozyan
each picked up $893 for a good weekend's work.

Following
is Khachiyan's clinching win over State champion Enrico and again the
Grandmaster has provided his own notes.

1.e4
c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5
I like to play this line in the Sicilian. The
idea is at some point to capture on c6, create double pawns, and then try to
create attack on kingside. The play is similar to the Grand Prix Attack in the
Sicilian Defence. 3...Nd4
One of the main responses. Also possible is 3...e6 or
3...e5.4.Nf3
The theory suggests 4.Bc4 but I like my move. With
my move order things get interesting. 4...Nxb5
Also very interesting is 4...g6, trying to keep
the knight on d4. 5.Nxb5 a6 6.Nc3 d6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 e6?!
So far, Black was repeating my game from recent
US Championship vs. Eckert, where my opponent played 8...e5. I think even after
8...e5 white's position remains better. Enrico tries to play differently, but
in fact he found himself in trouble, because Black is really getting behind in
development. Better was 8...Bg4. 9.Bg5 Ne7
9...Nf6 could be met by e5 at any time.9...Be7
is also bad, since the g7 pawn will hang. 10.0-0-0 h6 11.Bh4 Nc6 12.Qd2 Qa5
Very typical and important move. White avoids a
possible check and guards the pawn on a2. 13.Kb1 b5?

The best try was to play 13...Bd7 following by
Rc8. Black hoping to build some counterplay on queenside, but Black completely
underestimated White's attack. 14.e5! d5 15.Nxd5!

Among
the class players, notable was the performance of full time chess teacher Jay
Stallings in the 32-player under 2100 section. Jay, a congenial fellow from
nearby Santa Clarita, gave up only one draw in six games to finish a half point
ahead of Roland Rodriguez. Not only did Jay pick up $1500, his rating crossed
the 2100 threshold. WAY TO GO JAY!

There
was a 4-way tie in Under 1900 at 5-1, achieving that score were Marek Jankowski,
Alejandro Ruiz, Vincent Davies, and Joe Russell. This was the largest section
with 57 entries.

Bud
Stamper won the 36-player under 1700 section clear with 5.5 and Joshua Rose
was clear first in the under 1500 section, which had 34 players.

The
25-player under 1300 section was claimed by Timothy Abadilla with a clear 5.5 and,
finally, the under 1000 section was won with the same clear score by Rodrigo Casiano.

For
complete results and prize money check Chesstour.com
or the USCF MSA for rating changes.
On
a personal note, your reporter does not consider himself competitive in
high-class circles any more, despite a VERY occasional flash of old form. (Ed.Note-For
one example of such a"flash", check out Hanken's win over
Yeager in Jonathan Hilton's World Open report.)
As I approach three quarters of a century, it gets more and more challenging.
But I do love to play against strong players so you will still see me play in
Open sections of events, upon which I report, but seldom more than 2 or 3
games.

I
played two games in this event, losing miserably with Black to FM Ali Morshedi
(A real gentleman who started by telling me how much he loves to read my
stories-a sure way to soften up the decrepit one!), and then losing a very
interesting game to 8-year-old Expert Sam Sevian. This was a game worthy of
publication, in which, with my English, I parted with an exchange for a center
pawn and two bishops for knight and rook. I am pretty sure it was sound and I
was winning but my nearly 75-year-old head just does not function in the fourth
hour and I tried a number of equivocating plans. Finally, I let the wee ones'
knight settle on my f4 square where, in time pressure, the lad made a great
move to finish me off. He was beside himself with joy and, believe it or not, I
shared this to some extent as we analyzed. Sam gained two rating points to go to
2061. He lost to long time Master, now 2177, Richard Borgen, and
drew Master Evgeny Shver. This was my chance because if you don/t get ‘um at 8,
you may never get them!I expect to hear
a lot more of this Armenian youngster in the future.

Christian Tanaka, Photo Dujiu Yang

Speaking
of promising youngsters, 15-year-old Christian (Tiger) Tanaka picked up under 2300 money. This
young man played well in the Cadet and had beaten me twice before he turned 13.
His progress has not been as fast as I thought it would be but I feel certain
he will be gobbling up international titles in the next few years. In this
tournament, he slipped back into the Master class where I predict he will now
stay. He comes from a genuinely nice and supportive family and seems to have
adult social skills. That's' the best thing I can say of a young player.

I
was going to show you my game with Sam, but it will take some time to get it
out of my MonRoi (Yes, Brana, I remain technologically challenged), and I am
already past my deadline here. (Do I hear a collective sigh of relief??) So if
you wish to see one of the Old Duffers' efforts, (HAH!), MonRoi
will be in Indianapolis at the 110th US Open
and my games will be broadcast. I will also be doing "Hankens' Corner" for the
Bulletins and some of these droppings of wisdom may make their way into
CLO!I hope to see my fans, (all 3 of
them), there and I also hope to see YOU!!How can I resist telling you it will be my 37th in a row and
my 43rd overall!Obviously,
I can't!